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Jailed York gun dealer Gary Hyde could still face US prosecution

JAILED gun dealer Gary Hyde could still face prosecution in the USA, it has been announced.

Hyde, 43, helped ship thousands of AK47 assault rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition, and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment over a huge arms shipment from China to Nigeria by London’s Southwark Crown Court last week.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, a sister paper of The Press, has reported that prosecutors in the US are prepared to allow Hyde to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge connected to allegations that he smuggled illegal weapons parts to a firearms distributor based in a suburb of Rochester, New York.

Under that plea, Hyde, of Mask Lane, Newton-on-Derwent, would be sentenced to time already served in jail and would face no fines, but Assistant US Attourney Bret Puschek said prosecutors would not be willing to dismiss the gun-smuggling case against Hyde.

U.S. District Judge Charles Siragusa said Hyde could face three to seven years, depending on how much of the UK sentence Hyde serves, before the case could be resumed in the US.

Peter Zeidenberg, Hyde’s lawyer in the US, said on Friday he did not yet know whether Hyde would accept the plea deal but would discuss the deal with Hyde, with an answer expected early next month.